Thanksgiving - Americans Give Thanks and Educate the English

This was the first Thanksgiving I spent without my family, and it was a little rough. But as there were a number of us poor, family-less Americans in London we banded together to try to make the most of what we had. We all pitched in a couple pounds and bought the fixin's for a proper Thanksgiving feast and away we went. Unfortunately, because Thanksgiving is an American Holiday, no one else celebrates it. So the majority of us still had to attend our internships. While many of us spent our first (and hopefully last) Thanksgiving ever working, Ross, our incredible flatmate, took the day off and spent the day at the flat cooking up our feast. We were smart enough to realize that we should get some cooking done the day before, and thus, all the desserts were baked and ready to go on Wednesday night. We had 2 pumpkin pies and loads of cookies. We also peeled the potatoes and yams and made the cranberry sauce. Once we all arrived home we sat down to a proper Thanksgiving feast. 13 Americans doing what they can to celebrate. We had mashed potatoes, gravy, mixed veggies, cranberry sauce, yams, stuffing, bread, little bit of turkey, and chicken. We also had Strongbow to drink. We were only able to get a little bit of turkey because of the Avian Flu here, which has been driving the price of turkey through the roof. Chicken has been going up as well, but not nearly as much, because this is the season that everyone starts buying turkey for their Christmas dinners. For dessert we had pumpkin pie, vanilla ice cream, cookies, and some candy. We also did a post-dinner tea and coffee time. We were very classy. As we enjoyed our desserts we went around the room and said what we were thankful for. Many of us said that we were thankful for Ross, who cooked the wonderful meal, and for the fact that 13 of us have been able to live together in such a tiny space for so long and not kill each other. After eating many of the kids decided to head for the pub, but I went to lay down and talk to my family on Skype because I missed them and had a post-Thanksgiving food coma.

Friday I returned to my internship and then left after a half day because I had to catch my bus out of the city and up to Leeds for my Thanksgiving weekend with a British family. While at work I explained Thanksgiving 2 or 3 times to different co-workers. Personally, I think Thanksgiving is a really great holiday because it was created with the sole purpose of giving thanks for all you have. And its about family, and when lots of people get together lots of food follows. Its great. I also gave my boss tips about what to do and not to do Thanksgiving weekend because she was headed for New York for a few days also starting on Friday. I educated her on Black Friday and things, and even learned something about it myself. I always thought the reason it was called Black Friday was because it was so horrible in the stores. Tons of people rushing about trying to get the best deals, messy displays from people pawing through everything looking for what they want but not caring that they're leaving it a mess for the next person, and the total lack of parking spaces. Well I'm sure thats what a lot of other people associate with the day as well. But the term is used because it is the official start of the holiday shopping season, and since so many people shop and buy things it is traditionally the weekend when many businesses start turning a profit for the year and move out of the red, and into the black. Thus, Black Friday.
The bus left at 3:30 on the nose (something I was incredibly surprised and impressed to see) and arrived in Leeds at 8:05. 4 1/2 hours on a coach was more than enough I can assure you, particularly because the whole thing was full. Not one seat was empty and I had a broken chair on the aisle. So not only could I not use my pillow to sleep on, I couldn't even recline a little to get more comfortable. And to make it even more miserable the coach driver was a complete jerk and wouldn't allow me to take my backpack with me on the coach. He said there wasn't room for it in the over head bin, and I would have to place it in the luggage hold. I tried to argue with him, but he just yelled at me and told me to do what he said or he'd leave it behind. So I was uncomfortable and bored for 4 1/2 hours. Also we made one stop about halfway to our destination to pick up more people (not sure how we did this, as all the seats were full) and one man got off really quick for some reason. He got off with no jacket or anything, not even his cell phone. And then the driver left without him. His wife tried to call him, but found his phone in the seat, and told the bus driver he had left him behind. The driver being the throughly miserable person he is told her he couldn't do anything about it and continued to drive. Even though we were still in the round-about and able to turn around for him. Total jerk.

When I arrived at the bus station in Leeds I met my homestay family, Eric and Marie (pronounced Mary) Songhurst and the other two girls I was to share my experience with. There was Katie, who is from Colorado and attends University of Hawaii, and Sarah who is from South Dakota and goes to South Dakota State. They were both really nice girls and I liked them quite a bit. Before we got into the car to head for the Songhursts’s house we walked around the main shopping area of Leeds because it was all decorated for Christmas and the lights were incredible. I was in love within minutes because it was so pretty. I just love the Christmas season. It makes me so happy. After walking around for a bit we headed for their home and once there they heated up some dinner for me and I ate some really yummy turkey pie and veggies. And then they gave me some apple crumble with vanilla ice cream and I was a happy, happy camper. I went upstairs to my room and found that I had been given my own room and had a big bed (I think it was a full) and the other two girls were sharing a different room with twin beds. I was like “Wooooo, I’ve got my own room, and a big bed!” The bed also had an electric blanket to keep me nice and roasty-toasty and I totally spread myself out across the bed and slept diagonally with my arms all spread out.

Saturday morning we were roused out of bed at 6:45am and out the door by 7:20 so we could be to the BBC Radio station by 7:45. The 5 of us were interviewed on ShowJo’s Saturday morning show on our experiences in England, being in the country for Thanksgiving, and sharing it with a British family. It was really cool, and our homestay dad, Eric, made sure it was recorded (he made his son, Eric, wake up really early to record it) and made cd’s for us. He didn’t get it done before we had to leave, so he is mailing them to us. After our radio appearance we went back to their house and had an old-fashioned American pancake breakfast. It was so yummy. I had 5 pancakes and a Clementine and milk and it was grrrrreat. We then went to Scarborough and Filey on the East coast of England on the North Sea. It was perfectly picturesque and lovely, and completely overcast and misty and freezing, and the quintessential English day. We took lots of pictures and stuck our hands in the North Sea…so I can officially say I’ve been in the North Sea. We also played in the surf, because as we were trying to get pictures of us sticking our hands in the waves we had to keep running out of the way of the next one because we didn’t want to get our feet soaking wet. Haha it was lots of fun. Filey and Scarborough are both towns on the coast, and we walked around the sea-side and cliffs and had a picnic lunch in the car at the top of the cliffs and walked around at the top. Surprisingly, there aren’t railings at the top of the cliff, so if you aren’t careful you could tumble down onto the rocks in the sea below. We were careful though, and made sure to stay away from the very edge. After our lunch we made the journey back to Leeds (about an hour and a half on the motorway) and were home by about 3. We then started preparing for our Thanksgiving dinner (the turkey was in the oven while we were out). We had so much food and a dinner party with the Songhursts and their son and his wife. His wife’s sister, and two of their work friends. There were 10 of us total and we had a lovely time, with happy hour before dinner, dinner, alcoholic desserts, and then post-dinner drinks. And then they tried to convince us American kids that they weren’t alcoholics. Haha yeah right. By the end of dinner it was really late and we went to bed.

Sunday we slept in a bit…and by slept in I mean we slept until about 8:30. We then had breakfast and went out to the Pennines. We saw Malham’s Cove and Janett’s Foss. They were absolutely gorgeous and sooo green, which I thought was totally different because it was the end of November, and at home everything is brown and mostly dead. Here its just rainy constantly and doesn’t get bitterly cold until January or so, so its really green until then. It was also nice to be able to be up close and personal to everything without any safety railings in the way. We actually had to walk through fields with cows and sheep to get to Malham’s Cove. It was really great, and I was rather tempted to go pet a cow, but in the end I thought better of it and didn’t try it. After our tour of the Pennines we headed back to Leeds and said good-bye to Sarah and Katie, as they had trains home Sunday evening. We then returned home for some dinner and a quiet evening in and some television. We watched Antiques Roadshow and ­­­­­­­­­­­Heartbeat. It is set around Goathland and Whitby and on the North Yorkshire Moors. The North Yorkshire Moors Railway is a railway that is shot in the show and it runs from Pickering to Goathland and from this year on to Whitby. The Music played is basically chart hits from the 60's and its been running for about 17 years. Watching tele was really nice and relaxing, and I headed for bed around 11. The next morning I slept in until about 9:45ish and then Marie and I went around Leeds and did a bit of a tour of downtown and a really neat Christmas Fair. We returned back to their house for lunch and then I packed up and headed for the bus station and returned back to London on Monday evening.

As always, my pictures are better at telling the story, and I'll put them up...I swear!! For now, you guys will just have to entertain yourselves with the links I've provided.

Cheers!

Also, I find the subject of Avian Flu incredibly interesting, because its not something Americans tend to worry about, but here its a big ticket item and people are concerned and preparing for a pandemic. So I've provided a link or two on some further readings, if you're as interested as I am.
How Well Can Wall Street Handle Pandemic Flu?

World Health Organization

CDC

"You're radiant, I can't take my eyes off of you"

My last post was little more than a week ago, but it feels like so much longer because it was about Paris, and that was in fact forever ago. Nearly a month now. And I feel like a slacker, and I promise that for the last 17 days (yes, I admit that I'm counting down) I will do much better.

Since I've been back from Paris I've done a few things other than go to my internship. I hang out on the weekends, and go do and see things, and one weekend my darling Joanna was here to play with and show off London to, and last weekend I went to Leeds and stayed with a family for Thanksgiving weekend. So lets go back, and see what we can do about relaying all my experiences in the correct order.

Tuesday right after I returned from Paris I had a short meeting with Vas, a man who works in the Metropolitan Police Department who just finished a London First Secondment program with us. He gave me an overview of the Met and offered to put me in touch with some other officers within the Met. It was really useful, and after my meeting with him, I spoke with Stuart Wratten, an officer in the homicide division and he invited me out to the station in Barking to get an overview of what the homicide division does. So I went out there on the following Tuesday and got a really great rundown on how things work out there. I spent a good 4 hours in the station that day. They told me how they run their cases, showed me clips of Nightline, and showed me crime scene pictures and autopsy pictures of victims. It was a bit gory, but lets be honest, it's the kind of thing I live for. I learned a lot, and hope to have a chance to get back out there, and what would be really cool, is Stuart said that if he got a call for a homicide and I was around, he would let me come along. I think that would be incredibly cool and interesting to see something like that, but I feel weird saying something like, "I hope it happens" because then I would be saying that I hope someone gets murdered for my own benefit. That's pretty awful.

That thought actually inspires a memory I have of that following Friday (we're up to Nov. 16^th now). Some people from the office were going out for an after work drink and I was invited along as well, so I went. I needed some cash, so I set off in search of a Barclays, and found one on the far side of Leicester square. On my way there a man asked me for directions and I couldn't really help him. But he noticed my accent and started asking me about myself. He was kinda dirty and older, and I'm not certain if he was a bum or just a dirty European (am I allowed to say that?) but I wasn't too keen on prolonging the conversation. Anyhow here is roughly what followed:

Him: Are you American? (he also had an accent which made him hard to understand)

Me: Yes

Him: Why are you here, are you visiting?

Me: No, I'm studying for my university. I'm just here for the term.

Him: Oh, what are you studying?

Me: Justice (he looked a little less enthused at talking to me at this point..hmm wonder why, creepster)

Him: Oh that's cool. Want to be a lawyer?

Me: No, I want to be a cop or in the FBI or something. (looks even less enthused, but carries on all the same)

Him: Why do you want to be a cop, do you like putting handcuffs on people (and I am certain he was going for a dirty and less appropriate meaning).

Me: No. I like protecting people.

Him: Oh, that's nice.

Me: Yeah. I have to go, bye.

Yes, this actually happened. It was interesting to say the least. As for the rest of my night that night, my co-workers were very interested in the differences in our cultures and the different things and things. They were particularly interested in my drinking habits, because I said that my limit is usually 2 or 3 drinks, because I don't really enjoy drinking beyond being social these days. I've gotten over the being drunk thing already and I haven't even reached legal drinking age in the states. So backwards.

Also on Friday I got to see my BIG!! She had a 5-6 hour layover in Heathrow on her way to Cairo to see Timmy, and we met up and had lunch. It was so amazingly good to see her. I also met up with Joanna on the way because she was in town that weekend visiting. The three of us did lunch in a pub and had fish and chips (Joanna had sausage and mash though, I think) and Melissa brought me peanut butter m&m's. I was in HEAVEN because you can't get those over here, and I missed them so much. She brought me 2 big bags, and I just finished them this past weekend. I need more!!! She also brought Hershey's chocolate for Angelica. We were soooo thankful. We had a really great lunch, and it was really sad to say goodbye, but I'm very glad for the time I did get with her.

Friday evening after I had drinks with my co-workers I met Joanna and Justin (her friend she was visiting) and we went to a club called AKA, that was really neat. Well, the club itself was kinda lame and a bit expensive, but there was some really good entertainment. They had like, floor shows and one woman ate fire, and another did an act on a rope. You know the ones they made you try to climb in gym class? One of those. She did all sorts of acrobatics on it. So impressive, especially considering I couldn't even get halfway up the damn rope in high school when I was in the best shape of my life (so far).

Saturday morning I headed for Borough Market, and met up with Joanna and Justin once again to show it off to them. It was my third trip to the market and Justin hadn't been yet, so I got to show it off to them a bit. I went hungry and prepared to gorge myself on the delights that the market had to offer, and I was not disappointed one bit. Joanna and I started off with Nutella crepes, one of my new favorite things to eat. We then walked around a bit to get a lay of the land and choose what we were going to have for lunch. We tried loads of cheese samples (not all of them were good..blech) and a few chocolate samples, and even a bacon sample and a gin sample!! Joanna ended up choosing a bratwurst from a German stall, and I helped her eat it, the end that was sour kraut free that is. Then got myself a falafel, that was mmm mmmm good, but I had trouble eating it all because of the brat. After the market we took a tour around London School of Economics, where Justin goes to school, and played in the leaves and had a good time. We walked through the strand, to Trafalgar Square and then up to Piccadilly where I finally left them to head for South Kensington once again for basketball practice. Practice was intense because my legs were tired from walking all day and my feet were already sore. So then I ran around for 2 hours and we scrimmaged for quite a while and basically I was dead. After practice I got back to the flat, did a quick rinse-off and then got ready for another night out. I met up with Joanna and Justin again, this time in Leicester Square and we went to a club called the Zoo Lounge. Apparently this place is kind of famous? Or at the very least, very popular. The place was packed. The upstairs was fairly small, but once we ventured downstairs we found that the place was absolutely huge. And still packed. There were 6 big rooms downstairs and 3 bars and the place was jumpin'. I was really glad we had Justin with us because guys were hitting on me and Jo left and right, and Justin protected us from the more sketchy of them. Until he decided his objective of the evening was going to be, and I quote, "I'm gonna get you some ass, Sarah." I'm not sure why he decided this must happen, and why he thought I needed ass, but apparently I needed it, so he tossed as much at me as he could. Which is a weird thought if you think about it. Usually people only talk about getting guys girls, but this time it was the other way around. I was just interested in dancing with the least sketchy people possible because the more sketchy they are, the more likely it is that you'll be touched and fondled, and I was not ok with that. Clearly. I do not want random men to touch me, and I don't know why they think its ok. I don't know them, they don't know me. What if I was a mass murderer picking out my next target. They have no idea who I am (I'm ranting, sorry). So the best story I've got from that night is the Christiano story. This guy claims he was 23 (I'm sure he was older) and he's half Turkish half Italian (I think, I don't remember). He told me I was 'radiant' and he couldn't stop looking at me. Hmm..creepster. I decided he was polite though, and said I would dance with him. We had to have a few hand checks, but nothing too bad. He offered to buy me a drink, which I turned down because I had decided to be sober that night (and I was having loads of fun). He was a little disappointed at that, and then said, "Sarah, may I kiss you." At this point I laughed in his face (and said no), because, really, you think after 5 minutes I'm going to let you kiss me? I don't think so. About a minute after that the song was over and he said he would leave me alone. Fine by me. A few minutes later I heard something that made me laugh and very glad I told this guy no. He was talking to another girl and I distinctly heard the phrase, "you're radiant, I can't take my eyes off of you." It was a really fun night, as you can tell. Haha.

Sunday Joanna and I played in the leaves in Hyde Park (for a total of 5 minutes because it was FREEZING) and then went and explored Harrod's. We then went to Ben's Cookies and got cookies and milk and had a really lovely snack. Then it was time to put Jo on the train so she could head for the airport. For the rest of the day I did homework and other things and hung around the flat.

Monday my BLC class went to the British Museum, and this time around I did get to see the mummies!! They were really neat, and so incredibly well preserved. It was kind of weird to stand there and look at them through the glass and just know, that inside those wrappings was a human body that is hundreds and hundreds of years old. And I kind of had the weird thought of, "I wonder if it smells." Haha, I'm so gross.

Tuesday night we had tickets to the London Eye, and it was really cool. It takes about 20 minutes to go all the way around and is really neat. Our tickets were for 6:30pm, so it was dark when we went and everything was all lit up. Very impressive. I have loads of pictures, and I’m behind on those and I’m sorry. I’ll work on it.

That’s all for this blog, more to come on my internship, and then my Thanksgiving weekend and this week.

Cheers!

I ate my way across Paris

Two posts in quick succession. Though you wouldn’t be getting this one nearly as quickly if I was at work right now – where I should be. I’m not there because I’m feeling pretty sickly. Just in time for Thanksgiving again this year. I fear its turning into a tradition. Its Thanksgiving, Sarah must be sick again. Any how, here is the second half of my Paris trip.

Sunday morning around 5am Elyse woke me to say good-bye because her flight was early that day. I sat up and mumbled a hardly coherent farewell and gave her a quick hug, and then she was gone. A couple hours later it was my job to be the camp director, and I got myself and Angelica up and out of the hostel by around 10. Not quite as efficient as Elyse, but not bad nonetheless. Our plan for the day was to see Notre Dame, and then meet up with Laura around noon for lunch, but our plans quickly changed when we stumbled upon a market down the street from us. We couldn’t resist checking it out, and spent the next two hours browsing and strolling. We found a candied fruit seller that was impossible to say no to and he let us try loads of stuff. We tried strawberries, kiwi, apple (it was surprisingly good), cranberries, and walnut and fig, and I’m sure more. Angelica bought some kiwi, and I got some strawberries. They were so good, and absolutely wonderful to munch on throughout the day. I also bought another pashmina for 2 Euros. This one is cream colored and goes really well with just about everything. Though I am disappointed to say that the quality is nowhere near as good as the ones I got at the Rastro in Madrid for the same price. All the same, it was 2 Euro, so I won’t complain too, too much.

By the time we finished with the street market it was nearly time to meet with Laura so we called her, but found that the museum she was supposed to be visiting wasn’t yet open and she was still waiting in line. So we decided to go meet up with her there, and check out the museum. It was Musée de l’Orangerie at the Tuileries. I didn’t know how to spell either, so I googled them and stumbled upon a fantastic blog about someone’s experience at the museum. The museum houses Monet’s Water Lilies works and its some of his most famous art. Its impressionism, so I have trouble appreciating it like I appreciated the Louvre, but there was some other art downstairs by other impressionist artists that I thought was really fascinating. Unfortunately, by this time my camera batteries had died, and I didn’t have extras with me so I don’t have pictures from this museum (they allow pictures so long as you don’t use flash). This is partly why I have added in so many links – they have pictures of what I saw. That and I think these sites are far more eloquent than anything my rough Midwest vocabulary can accomplish.

After the museum Laura and Molly headed for another museum while Angelica and I headed down the Champs-Élysées. Quite funnily though, we belatedly realized that we were not in fact on the famous boulevard, but were instead on the one next to it. New York Ave. It wasn’t a problem because it was right on the Seine and absolutely gorgeous and we took some fantastic pictures (yay new batteries). We also stumbled upon a replica of the Statue of Liberty flame that the French gave to the U.S back in 1886. The perfect replica stands above one of the entrances to the tunnel that is now famous for the car crash that Princess Diana died in. The flame has been sort of converted into a memorial site to Diana with flowers and pictures commemorating the terrible spot. I did a bit of research and learned that there are lots of Statues of Liberty around Paris, and it’s quite interesting. After we spent a bit of time on the wrong street we checked a map and headed up George V Ave to get back to the Champs-Élysées. We didn’t know it when we started walking down it, but George V is home to the Four Seasons Hotel in Paris. As we approached the building we saw a rather large crowd and we couldn’t figure out what was going on.

Once we realized what hotel it was and saw some people holding pens and even saw a few paparazzi around it dawned on us that someone famous must be staying there. We decided we could stand around and wait for a few minutes, because hey, it’d be cool to see a celebrity. As we stood there it dawned on me that it would probably be a French celebrity because, duh, we’re in Paris. But until then I was assuming it would be an American or Brit, because those are really the world famous celebs you think of. Turns out I was right with both actually. Because not 10 minutes after we walked up, none other than Celine Dion walked out of the hotel. I said, “Holy shit, its Celine Dion.” I guess I didn’t actually expect to see anyone I recognized. I kept my wits about me though, and managed to snap a really good photo of her. To her immense credit, I would have to say that she is incredibly classy. She exited the hotel, said hello to the crowd and waved, stood there for a minute or two so people could take photos, and then stepped into her car and was driven away. I think this shows some really good character because I think I would hate to be followed to my hotel and be bombarded by people seeking autographs and pictures constantly. I would want my privacy and peace and quiet. But Celine accepts the reality of her fame with grace and poise, and I was very impressed. I would sneak out the back door as often as possible I think. My curiosity got the best of me, and I visited the Four Seasons website, and wow. That place is incredibly nice. I highly recommend the photo gallery for a quick look at the place if nothing else. I also decided to see how much it costs a night. I had some trouble finding availability, but I finally found an open room for Jan.15^th for $1,122.94 for two people and one night. For that price I hope it’s all inclusive. Spa visits and the like for free. Though maybe not, because if you’re wealthy enough to stay there you’re wealthy enough to pay for whatever else strikes your fancy while you’re there.

After our exciting detour we found the Champs-Élysées and about 5 blocks in front of us was the Arc de Triomphe. It was pretty incredible. We then headed for Notre Dame to meet up with Laura once more. Once at Notre Dame we sat in the cathedral for a while and relaxed because our feet hurt so much and we’d done so much walking the past few days. There was an organist playing Bach (I think) and it was very relaxing. We eventually got up and headed for an (extremely, by European standards) early dinner. On our way we stopped for some more crepes though (#3 of the weekend). For dinner we went to a place Laura had been before, a small restaurant with pretty great French cuisine. The place was completely empty except for the three of us and another American couple (though they were in their 50’s I would say – they mentioned their grown kids). There was one woman working as the entire staff of the place because it was so early (another person came in to work as we were leaving a few hours later). I ordered a steak and potatoes and green beans with a glass of the house red, and Angelica got a steak with pepper sauce and potatoes and Laura got roast beef that was to die for. We all tried each other’s meals and it was all so good. I would have to say that the roast beef may have been even better than my grandmother’s. And everyone in my family will tell you that I have to have Grandma’s roast beef every time I see her, or I feel jipped. There was of course the requisite French bread present that was totally delicious and I ate it with some of Angelica’s pepper gravy and was in heaven. Because the place was empty the cook (and owner I assume) let her two cats out, and one, named Flash, joined us for dinner. We think he was originally just interested in our pashminas, but eventually he cuddled down between us and took a nap while we ate. He was the most gorgeous cat and Angelica said he was a Snowshoe.

After dinner Angelica and I headed home and then decided to go see a movie in French. We saw Le Premier Cri (I gave the link to the movie website, but its kind of a waste of time unless you can read French), a documentary about childbirth. I didn’t understand one word of the film (because I took Spanish, not French in high school) but it was still interesting. After the movie we headed back to the hostel, and hung out with Justin for the rest of the evening and had crepe #4.

Monday morning we slept in until about 9:45 and it was great. We decided we could sleep in because we had already seen everything we came to Paris to see (mostly) and the few things that we thought would be cool to check out still were closed. We learned that they close all sorts of museums and things on Mondays because the government wanted to anger the church way back when, so they closed everything a day later than the church wanted. I’m not sure if this is true or not, but I find it an amusing concept.

We headed out to the city around 11, and stopped off first at an internet café to check email and print out bus tickets for getting home, and we were back on the Champs-Élysées by noon and we decided to go shopping! Justin came with me and Angelica, and he proceeded to be my personal shopper in Zara. I have fallen in love with this store and found that I do in fact like shopping….so long as I have a personal shopper on hand. We had a bit of a fashion show, and Justin was a total instigator and enabler in my quest for a montage-type experience. It was a lot of fun, and I fell in love with loads of their things. Alas, I left the store empty-handed. We then met Laura for lunch after her class. I had roasted chicken again (sooo good) except since we were in a café and not a nice restaurant it came with fries instead of some fancy side dish. But the fries were incredible, and I gobbled them up. Or what was left of them because everyone else decided they would help themselves to them as well. I can’t quite decide if I’m actually annoyed by that or not and its weeks and weeks later. Haha. Laura had to leave for class again, but other three of us stayed and chatted for hours, and spent most of the afternoon just watching the world go by. It was a very Parisian experience. Eventually we had to head back to the hostel and grab our things but on our way we stopped at a street vendor and had crepe #5. We then said good-bye to Justin and set off. We realized we had loads of time to kill though, and there happened to be a shopping area right by the metro, so in we went, and found a Zara, and this time around I did end up buying something. It was just a light blue button down shirt and very simple, but it’s practical, and looks nice. I’ve already worn it twice. So after our shopping tour it was finally time to head for London, and we did so as a pair of very happy, and slightly exhausted holiday-makers.

I think this is the longest blog yet, so I’m very glad I broke Paris into two parts. Ha.

Cheers!

J'adore Paris

Here it is folks, the long awaited Paris blog. Again, I apologize for the delay between posts.

Angelica and I arrived in Paris late Friday night and made our way to our hostel from the airport without too, too much trouble, considering neither of us have ever been to Paris, and Angelica only speaks a little French, whereas I speak none. We arrived around 11pm and checked into the hostel, called Oops. I thought it was a rather interesting name, but whatever. I’ve heard all sorts of horror stories about how dirty and horrible hostels can be, but this one was pretty nice (though the fact that it just opened in September could have something to do with it) and the only thing really wrong with it was that the elevator was broken…though it only broke after we had checked in and taken our bags up in it, which was nice. As we were checking in Elyse also turned up, so we were all together pretty much immediately, and our plan had worked nicely. The only part of the hostel any of us were wary about was our actual room, because we had booked a 6 occupant ‘mixed’ room. Which meant we could end up with a bunch of boys. We got to our room to find we’d been given a 4 occupant room, and there was one occupant. And he was male, and sleeping. We tried to be as quiet as possible, but inevitably, woke him up. We learned his name is Justin and as I picked up immediately, he’s Australian. He thought it was really nice of us to try to be quiet, and unlike other Americans he’d met previously, and from whom had developed the opinion that the stereotype of loud, boisterous, and obnoxious Americans was right on. He also decided that we were some of the coolest American females ever, because he’d also met some really girly, really annoying American girls. I’m really glad we changed his perception of Americans and showed him that not all of us fit the general, negative stereotype.

After talking to Justin for a bit, we decided we were hungry, and set off in search of some late night munchies. We found a place right next to us that was still open-ish and they let us come in and we sat down to our first crepes of the weekend. I say first, because in the time that I was there (late Friday until early evening Monday I had 5 crepes). And they were absolutely fantastic. I had the fairly standard chocolate crepe, but Angelica got a crepe with chocolate, pears, and vanilla ice cream and sparkler on top! It was crazy! And absolutely delicious. After our scrumptious, late-night snack we headed back to our hostel and got ready for bed. We then proceeded to talk to Justin late into the night, though Elyse and I fell asleep considerably sooner than Angelica and Justin.

Saturday morning Elyse put on her camp director uniform and made sure we were up, dressed, eaten, and ready to go and out the door by 9:07. Our goal was to be out the door at 9, so we could be at the Louvre when it opened at 10 so we wouldn’t have to wait in line for hours on end (I guess its notorious for that). Not bad if I say so myself. If there is one thing Elyse is good for (but clearly she’s good for lots of other things too), that’s totally it, and I’m incredibly glad she was there to do that. Though, I think I did a decent job of getting us up to go on Sunday morning (more on that later though, obvi.).

Our first stop of the jam-packed day was the Louvre. As you all know, I am not what you would call a big fan of art. I assume you all read my post on the Tate Modern, and my scathing sarcasm that went along with it (lots of sarcasm on the photo captions as well). Well, I seem to have found what kind of art I like, because I absolutely LOVED the Louvre. We only spent 2 ½ hours in there, but I think any longer and I would have been overwhelmed. I saw the things I thought were most important and some others on top of that. Because we were there so early we were among the first in, and it took no more than 10 minutes, total to get through security and get our tickets and into the first gallery. Our first stop was obviously the Mona Lisa. I hate to say it, but after hearing about Mona for so long and knowing its so famous, I was really disappointed in it. I have three reasons for this. First of all, it was much smaller than I thought it was going to be. Secondly, there were swarms of people around already, because it was everyone’s idea to see the Mona Lisa first. And thirdly, they had it roped off so you couldn’t actually get close to it. These three things combined to make it pretty impossible to get even a half-way decent photo. While I’m glad I saw it and can now say, “I saw the Mona Lisa,” it left much to be desired and I think I saw much better art that day. Sorry da Vinci. I would love to sit here and tell you about all the paintings I saw that day, but it would make this post about 3 hours long, and I don’t want to write it, and you don’t want to read it (though, maybe some of you without lives do..haha just teasing). But don’t worry, all the pictures I took are up on facebook, and as usual, I’ve posted the link at the bottom. As of now, I haven’t captioned any of them, as its going to take a bit of research for some, but I will get on it, and if you check back I’m sure that they will have some info. And I’ll probably let you know (I like to pretend you guys care that much).

Once outside the Louvre once more the three of us met up with our fourth, Laura! It was quite the AEPhi reunion. From there we walked to Montmarte, which is the tallest hill in Paris, and is topped by the Catholic basilica, Sacré Cœur. The area is known for its artist community, and famous artists such as Dali, Monet, Picasso, and Van Gogh all had studios around this community at one point or another. I wikipediaed Montemarte to learn more about the area, and the next few sentences are things I learned. ‘Montmartre means 'mountain of the martyr'; it owes its name to the martyrdom of Saint Denis, who was decapitated on the hill around 250 AD. Saint Denis was the Bishop of Paris and is the patron saint of France. The hill's religious symbolism is thought to be even older, as it has been suggested as a likely druidic holy place because it is the highest point in the area.’ That is just a little teaser, and the whole Wikipedia article is actually fascinating, and I highly recommend visiting it. Though only after you finish reading my fabulous post! To try to achieve this end, I’ve put the link at the end of the post. Muahaha.

After we walked around the area for a while we decided it was time for lunch, and picked an outdoor café to eat some French food. I had a croque-monsieur, which is a ham and cheese sandwich, and a dark hot chocolate. They were both pretty delicious, particularly the dark chocolate – I’ve found I’ve really developed a taste for it.

After lunch we did a bit of poking around in a shopping mall which was fun. I bought Q-Tips….very exciting, I know. And after shopping for a while we found a cute café and sat down for crepe #2 of the weekend. I also had hot chocolate with mine and it was really, really delish! By the time we finished with this it was growing dark and around 5-5:30 in the afternoon. Laura left us to return to her homestay, and the three of us headed for the big event for the day, the Eiffel Tower.

Seeing the Eiffel Tower was everything I had hoped for and so much more. I guess I didn’t really think about seeing it very much, I just always knew it was an icon. But when I walked around the corner and saw it for the first time, it blew me away. I think it helped that my first glimpse of it was around 6pm and the lights were not only on because it was evening, but also it was sparkling because it was the hour. Every hour, on the hour the tower starts sparkling, and its just glorious. I was enraptured. As we approached I took picture after picture and as a result, I have about 30 pictures of it. We spent 3 hours there, much of which was spent in line, and we left just after 9, so we were able to see the tower sparkle 4 times in the 3 hours, and it was a nice kind of symmetry, to walk up and walk away while it sparkled in the distance. While there we decided to make the trip to the top, and got into line. We stood and talked and passed the time pretty easily (though Angelica and Elyse claim the girl behind us was completely horrible – I didn’t notice though). About an hour into our wait in line we realized that the reason our line was shortest was because it was the line that did not have an elevator to the first and second platforms. Which meant it was stair climbing time. I did not want to get into another line and start all over, so I convinced the girls that it would be ok, and we could make the climb. It was surprisingly easy, even though we climbed just over 700 stairs (they were numbered). Now if you think about it there are generally 12 (sometimes 13) stairs in each flight of stairs which translates to climbing a 58 story building (53 if it’s a 13 step flight). Go us! Once at the second platform there is an elevator only route (thank goodness) to the top, and we proceeded onward. As we reached the top 8pm struck, and the lights were flashing around us. It was incredibly cool and slightly surreal. I also think the comment about having a seizure was made…haha. There was also a random group of American kids around and we over heard a comment one of them made that made us hysterical with laughter. He said something to the effect of, “And to think I was afraid of how high the Ferris wheel was.”

After our love affair with the Eiffel Tower we met up with Laura once again, and this time she brought her friend Molly along. Then the five of us went to dinner at a nice restaurant and I had an incredibly delicious and incredibly French meal. It was roasted chicken on a bed of rice (I think, I don’t remember anymore) and mushrooms (I picked out the few mushrooms) and some incredible French bread and a glass of the house white wine. It was incredibly filling, and incredibly tasty. At this point you may begin to realize that I was eating my way across Paris. Once we had filled our bellies again we realized how completely exhausted we were and scratched our original plan of going out to party, and just went to back to our hostel and headed to bed.

I think I’m going to end the post here, and finish my trip to Paris another time because this is already incredibly long. Stay tuned!!

Cheers!

Go here for Love the Louvre pictures

Here is the really great article on Montmarte

Workin' for a Living

As you all know I did indeed make it back to London safe and sound after all of my adventures abroad. Since my return I have been a major slacker and I apologize profusely. I thought it would be even easier to update after break as I no longer have classes, and basically I have 4 days a week free, but it turns out I have fall less free time than I thought and my internship is pretty intense. I find myself struggling to even get myself to the grocery store so I can cook for myself. Something I’m afraid I have to do yet again.

I’ve started my internship. For those of you who don’t know, I work for London First, in the safer business section. London First brings companies together and lobbies for them in Parliament, and works with the police to make business safer and things like that. I do actual work, which is a bit of a surprise because a lot of internships are just kids making copies and doing data entry, you know the menial things. Well, from the beginning my boss, Denica, has been saying that I’ll be doing lots of real things, and has made a work plan for me that outlines all the skills I should be developing over the 8 weeks I’m with them. Its fairly terrifying because this is my first internship and first real office experience and I don’t have any clue what I’m doing. I’m doing things like data entry (boring, but part of the job), calling our members to get some information on their business continuity plans (as in what is their plan for getting their business running again after a flood or something), going to meetings and taking notes, and there is talk of me doing my very own project. The project is building a website for the metropolitan police…a fairly big deal. Freeeeeak out. More on this in later blogs.

My first weekend back from the weekend, I did a bunch of stuff, even though I didn’t have my oyster. I did get my replacement credit card on Thursday so I didn’t have to starve anymore. Friday night the Victoria and Albert Museum was open late for a Halloween deal, and Justin and I went. It was really cool. We listened to a real life ghost-buster type, and if nothing else it’s a cool story to listen to. We also waited in line for about an hour and a half to get our faces painted like we were dead, and then get a picture taken. It was so cool. We then went to the surprise show at midnight. And boy was it a surprise. It was a freaking burlesque show. My eyes nearly popped out of my head. Seriously, I was shocked they had that at a museum.

Saturday afternoon I decided to head for the Natural History museum, but when I got there I found it completely packed and overrun with small kids and their parents, and it just wasn’t fun. Needless to say, I didn’t spend a lot of time there, but I intend to head back, on a weekday so there are many less people around. Hopefully… After my failed trip to the museum I had basketball practice in the evening, and went to that. It was good, but not hard, like I’m used to.

I have no idea what I did on Sunday. Not a clue. I guess that means I did nothing. Ha. The one thing I did do was take a walk in the evening, and it was a really long one, and very relaxing. I got some groceries, and returned home.

Monday I had BLC, and we took a field trip to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. It was really neat. I have some fantastic pictures, and after the short tour we went inside a different building and had a workshop-type deal. I learned so much about how Shakespeare wrote and how plays were performed and it all makes so much more sense now. And so many of the things are very subtle and I never would have known any of it just from going to a play or something.

Tuesday I went to my internship for a half day because I only intended to go for half a day on Friday because of my trip to Paris. I then spent the afternoon with Rachel Rath, who was in London for a while. She’s in Florence for the semester, and came to visit good old London. We first went to Westminster Abbey and spent a long time touring the Abbey. We went on the day they were testing out a new audio tour, so we got to use it for free, and it was brilliant. We learned so much! We then went to the Victoria and Albert museum and I actually toured it this time around. My favorite room was the giant sculpture room that is full of casts of some of the most famous sculptures in the world. It was really cool, and I’m not even a sculpture person. After a quickish tour of the V&A (it was closing) we walked through Kensington Gardens to see Kensington Palace. Now, the V&A is open until 5:30, and it took us about 20 minutes to get to the Palace from the museum. And its fall, so it was totally full dark by the time we got there. But I figured it wouldn’t be too much of a problem, because a thing called electricity was invented way back when. Apparently they have yet to learn of this fabulous invention in Kensington Palace, because there was not one light on in the whole building. It was quite hilarious, so we of course, took pictures. Haha. We then headed back to the flat so Rachel could see where I live and also say hello to Kristian, because they’re good friends as well. We then went to a pub to have fish and chips, because somehow, Rachel has never had them, though she’s been to England once or twice before.

Wednesday was Halloween, and after our internships much of the flat got dressed up, and went out to celebrate. We went to a place called the Roadhouse in Covent Garden, and we were there around 9pm. Because we got there so early there was no cover. And once we got inside, we found out that if we waited half an hour it would be happy hour, and all cocktails were half off. 3 pound cocktails. It was really sweet. I decided that this was a prime chance to try all the things I’ve always wanted but thought were too expensive. I had a Mi Tai which was really good, a Sex on the Beach (also good), a Long Island Iced Tea (which I’d had before and really liked, though this one was crap), and my favorite of the evening was a Mojito. I’ve also had a Mojito before, but this one was incredible. It was really sweet, and I loved it. It was also really strong, and the bartender (who was dressed like Luke Skywalker) really knew his stuff, and did a few bar tricks. I forgot to mention what I dressed up as. I was the sun. It was sweet. Basically, it was a last minute costume that was totally pimped out. Pipe cleaners and sunglasses = badass. Haha. Or maybe we just played a game called, “Make Sarah look as stupid as possible.” Which worked out well because I looked so toolish it was cool. Ha. There was also a live band that played from 11:30-12:30, and we left soon after they were done with their set because we all had to go to our internships bright and early the next morning.

Thursday and Friday were both pretty regular days at the office, except Friday was only a half day because I was headed for PARIS!! But that’s the next blog.

I was busy putting up pictures from break as well, so here are all the links for that. All my albums from fall break are here, so you may have seen some of them because I sent an email about some of them a while ago.

More pictures and blogs to come soon!

I wanna go to the beach, can't you skip class?

How to be Unlost in Rome

When in Rome, Party like the Romans

This is what life should be like all the time

Authentic Bullfight in Madrid


Cheers!

This is What Life Should be Like All the Time

Upon my arrival to Madrid my loving Jenn Jenn was there to meet me. I was soooo incredibly happy to see her. My spirits were dampened a little because as I was coming from Italy, Spain did not want to look at my passport. They figure, I can get into another EU country, so I’m ok for theirs. It was a little sad. But its odd, cause they do care if you come from the UK, and the UK cares where you come from no matter what…they’re total snobs, and honestly, I kinda like it. Very security conscious. Must be because they know they’d better be when they’re so friendly with the US. Anyhow, I met Jenn and we booked it to her home stay in Pinar del Ray. Its in the outskirts of Madrid, and very suburbs. They have a really nice Senora and she is incredibly accommodating, and does just about everything for Jenn and Emily. The only problem is she doesn’t speak English, so it was a little hard for me to communicate because I’m so rusty and kinda bad at Spanish. Their Senora was also Theresa Garcia’s mom when she was abroad, but I didn’t find that out until after I had met their mom and didn’t go back.

After we dropped my things off very quickly we went to the bus stop and were off to Sol because Jenn had to see a film for class, and they had gotten me a ticket to it as well. The whole AU enclave program was there actually, so after the film I got to see Emily and Joanna as well. We didn’t get to say hello before the film started because we were about a half hour late to it because of my plane. Although it turns out we only missed about 10 minutes of the actual film because there were so many advertisements, and there wasn’t anything important in those 10 minutes. The film was called Los 13 Rosas and was completely in Spanish and there weren’t English subtitles because it was a real movie in a movie theatre, not just an educational movie. The movie was also incredibly sad, because it was about 13 women who were rebels against the Franco regime in Spain and they all got caught and executed. Since I’m an evil and cold-hearted person (no I don’t really think I am) I didn’t cry, though just about everyone else did.

After the incredibly depressing movie a bunch of us went to a restaurant and had tapas and drinks, though I just had water because I was so exhausted from the night before and didn’t think it would be very kind to my body to put any alcohol in my body whatsoever. We sat there and talked and generally had a good time, and while we were there a band came up to the end of the street we were on and started playing. It was really cool, and they were really good, and it was then and there that I knew that I was going to have some of the best couple days of my whole time over here in Europe, and I was absolutely right.

Following tapas, I went back to Jenn’s and Emily’s to collect my belongings and change for going out, and we met at Joanna’s house where I dropped my things off and we headed for dinner, and then a bunch of us went out to Chueca together. We had dinner at a kebab place called Bosforos. It was a requirement that I visit this place, as it is very near Lola’s and Jason’s favorite place to eat in Madrid, outside of Lola’s that is, because he talks about her cooking even more than he talks about Bosforos. Any how, Joanna, Jenn, Emily, Piah (Jo’s home stay mate), and I all went to Bosforos to have a Jason experience. So we all ordered a #1, and sat at the Jason table (I got to sit in the official Jason seat though) and we were going to put the spices on, but they were no where to be found. So we just ate our #1’s and fries and rice and didn’t have spices, but man, we were all impressed with how incredibly good it was…..and how incredibly cheap. It was 3.50 for the giant kebab that none of us finished! Its like the Spanish version of Chipotle for me I think. Jason calls it an orgasm in a pita, and I think he might not be far off with that assessment. So after dinner we headed out for the evening to a hot spot known as Chueca.

Now, Chueca is known for its clubs, and has some of the best in London literally right next to each other, but it is also the gay district, and apparently Madrid is one of the (for lack of better term) gayest cities in Europe. This isn’t a problem, but it made for some pretty interesting observations. We went to a bar called Nike (pronounced Nee-kay) and they had hella cheap drinks. There were giant cups of sangria for 3 Euros (I think) and mixed drinks the same size for 5 I think. I’m completely unsure because I didn’t pay enough attention when people said how much they were when asked by others, and I didn’t buy any for myself. Now that I think about it I only had one drink (alcoholic) the whole time I was in Madrid, and it wasn’t a problem at all. I just didn’t want it, and I totally had fun anyhow. While at Nike we talked and coughed (cigarette smoke…its legal to smoke indoors in most places in Spain and boy do they ever) and there were 7 or 8 girls in our group, and one boy. This is because there are 30 girls and 4 boys on this program. And I for the life of me can’t figure out why there aren’t more boys….but it seems that its that way a lot for Madrid…I asked where all the boys where, and the response I got from Emily was, “In London apparently”. This was because I had just told her that we had 14 boys and 11 girls in London. We hog the boys, what can I say. The four of us (and by 4 of us I mean Jenn, Emily, Joanna, and I) decided to call it a night early because I was dying from lack of sleep and the others wanted to rest up because we decided that Saturday would be our big night of debauchery. So Emily and Jenn went back to Pinar del Ray, and Joanna and I headed for Manuel Becarra.

It was when we returned to Joanna’s at this time that I met the famous Lola. Joanna’s home stay mom, and also Jason’s when he was in Madrid. Basically Jason was incredibly jealous when I found out that I was not only going to get to meet Lola, but also stay at her home because Jenn and Emily decided that there just wasn’t room at their place. To be fair, I saw it and quite agree, and I got my very own bed at Joanna’s because there was a trundle bed under hers. Lola was fantastic and so incredibly nice, and we had some conversations about Jason. Sadly, I did not get any dirt on him, because she only had good things to say about him. Seriously, if it was up to Lola and Jason wasn’t Jewish, I think she would have him sainted. It’s ok though, it’s clearly proof I’ve got a good ‘un on my hands. It’s just too bad he reads this, ‘cause now his head is going to be inflated beyond belief. I spoke a little Spanish to her and then she asked me if I understood and from then on, it was all Spanish, and I tried my best to keep up with the conversations. I’m pretty rusty on my Spanish, let me tell you. Even though Lola pretty much only spoke Spanish to me, she did speak a lot slower when addressing me, and when it was clear I wasn’t getting it, she used English. She also laughed at me when I was making the bed and apparently tried to put the sheets on the wrong direction and asked me if I knew how to make a bed….I’m positive that for a whole night she thought I was a complete ditz. Whatever, I make beds how I want…..until they make me fix it…haha. Once the beds were made, it was time to get in them and Joanna and I put in Love and Basketball and fell asleep watching that.

Saturday we got up and headed for the Retiro to meet up with Jenn and Emily and have a look around the park. This park is sooo much fun. There is a lake and you can rent boats, and we decided to do this, and the boat cost 4.30 for the 4 of us. We thought it was 4.30 per person, and were still willing to pay that, so we were totally thrilled. We got the boat for 45 minutes and we had tons of fun. Everyone tried rowing, first in pairs (didn’t work out so well) and then singularly…and boy me and Emily were awful at it. We nearly got us killed I think….more specifically and more often though, probably me. We nearly got run over by the Barco…the big boat that is motorized and carries like 20 people around the lake. Joanna and Jenn were good at rowing though, so they did the bulk of the work. There were some waterfalls on one side of the lake, near a giant monument and I wanted Joanna to get near them so I could stick my hand in and have a picture, so she did, and I got one, but then we were too close and the water was going to start coming into the boat, and we were all freaking out cause we were going to be “taking on water” and it would have been falling on me and I did not want to get soaked. We eventually made it out due to Jo’s superior rowing skills and we were all still dry. That is until we met a young Spanish boy around 10 who decided that we were funny, and he would try to splash us from his boat. Well, we thought this was cute and hilarious, but at the same time we rowed away as fast as possible because that water was coooold! The lake isn’t too big and because of that we ran into the kid and his boat numerous times. Eventually he was splashing us, and we were splashing back and giggling the whole time, because it was sooo fun. We were like “Run, it’s the Spanish Armada!!” and then he said to us, “I’ll give you time to escapar!” Clearly the whole sentence was in Spanish, not just the last word, but that’s what he said, loosely translated, and I like the word “escapar” (to escape). This little kid was soooo cute, he absolutely stole my heart away. After the boats we went and had lunch at a little café, and we ordered a couple sandwiches and drinks, and we had also packed some lunch so we had that as well, and it was just lovely. We sat around in the sun and talked and had a nice leisurely time, and I really think the Europeans have it right when they don’t hustle you out of your table once you have finished. We sat there for ages just talking, and then finally asked for the bill and went on our way. We walked around the rest of the park, may have seen the oldest tree in Madrid (we think we found the right one), and then had some fun with cameras and jumping. Haha, the pictures are pretty great. After the park we headed back for Lola’s and the four of us hung out in Jo’s room and we all took naps in the 2 beds. It was just like sophomore year, all of us cuddled up in bed together.

After naps Emily and Jenn had to go back to their house and have dinner and get themselves gathered for the evening out we had planned. Saturday night was to be our long, out-all-night-crazy-night. Here’s the thing. Spanish culture and night life goes like this; dinner between 9-10 and you don’t finish until 10:30-11:30, and then you might head home get yourself together, whatever. But the bars are pretty empty if you show up before midnight, and they get really hopping around 1. Clubs are dead until 1 or 2, and they stay open until 5am-ish. We headed out for Sol around 11 and went to a bar called Dubliners for our first stop. We were supposed to head for Kapital after that, but we ended up having so much fun at Dubliners that we never ended up leaving. All night I only had 1 drink, and I had lots of fun and didn’t need more than that. It was interesting, but hey, whatever, I don’t always need to be crazy. Once Dubliners closed, we went right next door to O’Connell Street, and hung there until about 4 when they closed. Then we had to figure something out, because the metro starts up again at 6 (another reason people are out all night, unless they want to take a bus). We decided that we had to go for churros, and there is a really famous and popular churro place right in Sol, so we went there. I think I’d been there before (the last time I was in Madrid, like 4 years ago), but I couldn’t figure out where our hotel was, but it was definitely somewhere in the area, because we walked to this churro place from it. Any how, the churros were incredible and delicious, and I just love hanging out with my girls, we always have so much fun. After churros it was about 5, and we headed for home on the night buses. Jo and I were home by about 5:30 and we collapsed into bed.

Sunday morning, Joanna slept in while I got up to get ready to meet Emily and Jenn at the metro stop by the Rostro. The Rostro is a giant Sunday morning market in Madrid, not unlike the ones in London. So we went and had a good time looking around, and I bought 2 pashminas for 2 euro each. It was an incredible deal, and they’re pretty decent quality and they look quite pretty. Look out for them in the pictures….I’m pretty obsessed with them now. After the Rostro I went back to Lola’s where we had a lovely sit down lunch around 2 in the afternoon. She made more of her famous Zucchini crema soup, that is sooooooo delicious, and we had bread and beef and fries, and mmmmm such wholesome goodness. After lunch we met up with Jenn and Emily again, and headed for a bull fight!! It was incredible. At a bull fight they don’t just do one fight, they do 6. So you have to see 6 bulls die in the ring. The first one was really hard to watch because we weren’t really sure what to expect, and clearly, its people killing an animal. But we were brave girls and stayed for the whole thing, and saw some pretty spectacular things. The fight we were at was an amateur fight, which means that it was a) less expensive and b) sloppier than a professional fight. Sloppier doesn’t necessarily mean worse, but it can definitely mean more exciting….and boy that is what we got. A bunch of the fighters got roughed up by the bulls and one even got actually gored, and that was awful to watch. I hid in Joanna’s shoulder for that actually. But we followed up, and found out that the guy is going to be ok. He’s got an 8 inch hole in his thigh, but it isn’t anything that is going to kill him or even maim him for life. I think the freakiest part about the whole thing was that his girlfriend was sitting right next to us, and she very reasonably completely freaked out. I would flip out if it was my boyfriend. Never fear, there are loads of pictures, and even some video, and here are some websites to instruct you on bullfighting, because its rather complicated, and I barely understand it myself so I couldn’t possibly explain it all to you.

Go here for the wikipedia explanation (pay attention to the Spanish-style fighting)

Go here for the bull fight we saw. There is some really good video and pictures.

the guy who got really hurt is named Vicente Pinazo, and the part about him is at the very bottom of the page. There were some other incidents at the fight, which are also pictured. You can also click to watch the highlight (or lowlight because it shows the peeps getting hurt)video. The thing is called videoresumen and its all the way to the right near the top of the page.

After the bull fight Emily and Jenn and I went to Bosforos again because we were craving it (totally like Chipotle) and then we went to find Jo at Dubliners to watch the football game. We hung out there until about 11 and then headed home for the evening. We didn’t do much and basically just headed to bed, but not before we had a lovely chat with Lola and we talked about Jason and his insanity (unicorn?). We sill love him though. Haha.

Monday morning I got up really early and met Jenn at the Prado to see the museum only to discover that it is closed on Mondays!! Talk about a bummer. But it was ok, because we went to her school and printed some things out for my flight home, and booked bus tickets and things for me, and then we had lunch and I found paella and it was deeeeeeelish! We also went shopping for a thank you present for Lola. I got her a picture frame and put a picture of me and Jason in it for her. She somehow didn’t have a framed picture of Jason and I had a few pictures of the two of us with me, so I gave her one. She really loved it! Yay! We hung out at school for the rest of the afternoon, and just relaxed until Jo had to leave for her internship, and I had to leave for the airport. It was really sad, because I really didn’t want to leave. Those girls are soooo my favorites (cept Jacki of course) and I think Madrid might be one of my favorite cities on earth. I’ve been twice now, and I don’t think I would mind going back 100 times.

Lost in Roma

Wednesday started early again, though not quite so early as Tuesday. We were out the door by 9am for Lauren’s Art of Rome class. We walked past the Vatican, which was amazing and totally packed for Wednesday mass. There were incredible amounts of people. Lauren’s art class was pretty cool, we saw a really neat fountain called Fontana Paola, and it was huge! It was on a road called Via Giuseppe Garibaldi, and at the very top of this road is an incredible view of Rome. You can see just about the whole city from there. We also visited a church during Lauren’s class and it was connected to the Spanish Embassy, which was pretty cool. The Spanish embassy is there because the church was commissioned by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, and they bought back some of the surrounding buildings to use as the embassy. After class we headed to the bottom of the giant hill for some lunch, and we popped into a cute little pizzeria and got some of the best pizza I’ve had in a long time. Its one of the few places you can find in Rome that allows you to take your food/drink and go, because in Italy eating is an institution and making it an art form. You are meant to sit and enjoy and take your time, not just stuff while on the go. Its nice because you always get to enjoy your meal, but on the other hand as a tourist with only so much time to see the sights you don’t necessarily want to spend 3 hours on lunch when you could spend 30 minutes and then see St. Peter’s with those other 2 ½ hours. After lunch we stopped back my Lauren’s university, checked our email and ran into some other AU kids. I saw my friend Mark, who kinda looked up at me, said “Hey” and then did this incredible double take as he realize that I wasn’t really supposed to be there. It was absolutely priceless. Then Lauren decided to skip her class, and take me to the beach! It was an hour journey to the coast, and it was a little chilly once we arrived, but it was absolutely worth it. It was incredibly cold, but I was a big girl and eventually got myself entirely into the Mediterranean. The beach was a black sand beach, because it was made out of volcanic rock, and it was really different from the beaches I’m used to. I kept thinking it would be like dirt and make me dirty, but it was just like white sand and just stuck to me, and once wiped off left no residue or black marks. After returning from the beach we ate dinner back at Lauren’s apartment. Lauren cooked some chicken and pasta, and veggies, and it was really good. We then went out and visited the Trevi Fountain at night, and I tossed in a coin to ensure that I return once again, because I totally love Rome, and will return as often as possible. On the way Lauren and I stopped at a gelato place that Lauren claims is the best in Roma, and I won’t deny that it was fantastic, but I still think my place by the Pantheon was better. At the Trevi we met up with Elyse and she wanted some gelato as well, so being the good friend that I am, I agreed to get some more with her. Again, it was good, but my place was better. I then parted ways with Lauren for the evening, and went home with Elyse for the evening. The two of us sat and talked for a couple hours, and then turned in, because we had an early morning ahead of us.

In the morning we left her apartment early and stopped by her local food market, and it was wonderful. There was so much fresh fruit and bread and meats and cheese it was mind boggling. Just walking around was a feast of the senses. We left the market and stopped by a pastry shop and indulged in a cannoli that was absolutely to die for. It was so good, and Elyse managed to make a complete mess of hers and get powdered sugar absolutely everywhere, including on the brim of her baseball cap. I was amused to say the least. We then ended up walking to her school, which was at the top of an incredibly steep and long hill, as the bus decided that it wasn’t ever going to arrive. Elyse then went to her class, and I was off to see the touristy sights of Rome once again. However, I was on the wrong side of the street, and ended up in the suburbs of Rome and completely lost for about 3 hours. By the time I found my way back to the city center my feet killed, because I lost my bus route and didn’t know what other one to take, and it was nearly time to meet Elyse again. However, I was not disappointed in my journey because I got to see a part of Rome that I never would have had I not gotten lost, and it was incredible. I saw a man jogging, and that was landmark because people don’t go running in Rome because they walk everywhere. He was the only person I saw out running the whole time I was there. Once back in the city I visited the Museo dell’Ara Pacis. It’s a museum right down the street from the Pantheon and on display was a collection of 300 of Valentino’s most beautiful dresses, including some dresses worn by incredibly famous women. There was one of Jackie O’s, Halley Barry, Julia Roberts, Audrey Hepburn, and even Princess Diana. For a person who doesn’t really like fashion or dresses that much I liked it an incredible amount, and it was definitely worth seeing. After the museum it was down the street to the Pantheon to meet up with Elyse and we then headed to the Spanish Steps to have a seat on them and at the Fountain at the base of them and enjoy the day. It is one of my favorite places in Rome and I love visiting it. After sitting a while and nearly falling into the fountain, we headed back to her apartment for a bit of a rest and a snack. Then around 6pm we left again, because Elyse had another class, and I was meeting up with Lauren again for dinner and then a night on the town. We ate in again, and hung out with one of her roommates for a while and then headed out to Campo, on of the best known areas in Rome for bars.

At Campo we went to a bar called the Drunken Ship where we met up with Elyse once again and played some beer pong! Lauren and I beat some boys and then were going to play again, when Huw finally arrived. It was so fun!! Huw and Amanda beat Lauren and I and then they lost their next game against some strangers. We then decided to head to another bar, and there Huw refused to let me buy any drinks myself and paid for them because he said I was visiting and he had to be a good host, if only for the night. He is such a gentleman. Because it was a Thursday night the bars were all half empty, though Lauren said in the past they’ve been completely full. I never caught the name of the second place we went to, but it was pretty crazy. The bar tender was a real bartender and did fantastic tricks, and I think the best ones were when he lit a bottle of Malibu on fire and then blew on it to make a torch, and then when he poured some alcohol out of a mixing cup, and then caught it as it was falling to the floor. I’d never seen tricks performed, so this was a real treat for me. We stayed until closing around 2 and were going to go home, when Huw convinced all of us except for Elyse who had a quiz the next day to go to one more bar with him. We headed to Scholars, and it was completely packed. There was seriously no room to move at all here, and was the only full bar, and I’ll have to attest that to the televisions with American sports on them and the fact that it was probably the only American bar open within a mile or so. While the others continued to drink I decided I had had enough because I had to fly to Spain in the morning, so I switched to water to avoid being dehydrated in the morning. When we finally left at closing time, it was really late, and we had a bit of a walk ahead of us. We decided to have a photo shoot on some fountains, and it was really fun, and Huw was totally ridiculous. He also let me wear his shirt because I was freeeezing. He then proceeded to walk us all the way home even though he should have walked the opposite direction when we got to the Vatican. But no, he walked about 10 blocks in the wrong direction, putting him about 20 blocks from home around 4:30 5ish in the morning. We tried to convince him that he needed to stay with us, and we’d give him some blankets, but he refused. He did make it home alright, but we were super worried he would be accosted because he was tipsy and alone and American at 5am. As mentioned, we walked past the Vatican at night, right in front of St. Peter’s and it was incredible. I’d only seen it during the day, and it was all lit up and totally gorgeous. The next day I woke up rather early and with only 2 ½ hours of sleep I needed to make my way to the airport for my flight to Madrid. I made it rather easily and it was nothing compared to my first attempt at traveling throughout Europe. The only problem was that the plane was about 2 hours late….and I’m not sure why. We were supposed to land in Madrid at 1:30 and we didn’t get there until after 3. But more on that later, because this blog is my longest yet I think!!

Cheers!!